Thailand's Indorama Ventures receives INDA Innovation Award

Indorama Ventures, in partnership with Polymateria, has been honoured with the INDA Innovation Award for their groundbreaking collaboration in developing pioneering Biotransformation technology to create wipes, which totally biodegrade, leaving no harmful substance or microplastics behind.

The award recognises the level of technical innovation and investment that led to developing wipes that both deliver against the sustainability challenges of today while meeting the demands of Indorama Ventures’ customers worldwide.

“This is a huge honour for us,” said Shachar Rachim, CEO at Indorama Ventures’ Hygiene Group. “End of life issues with products that are made of nonwoven fabrics are as complicated as they are numerous. Used product waste, whether the simplest wipe material, the most prolific face masks or the most complicated in the form of baby diapers, all utilise polymeric resins that have a high degree of inertness and stability but that are difficult to recycle and degrade. We embraced this issue with our technology partners to bring a new type of solution to market, specifically in the form of biotransformation technology.”

Through its 10-year partnership agreement with technology innovator Polymateria, Indorama Ventures is applying Polymateria’s unique biotransformation technology to fibres and spunmelt nonwovens. Biotransformation is the world’s first biodegradation technology that is capable of delivering full biological consumption of Polyolefin products in the open terrestrial environment. Polyolefin-based materials produced by this technology are especially useful for applications where materials may be leaked into the environment as unmanaged waste, the company said in a press release.

“Once triggered, the material will continue to the point of forming the low molecular weight wax structure, leaving no microplastics behind to cause environmental problems,” explained Rachim. “Moreover, if the product comprising the biotransformation technology is not exposed to the triggering conditions of sunlight, heat, air and moisture, then it can be recycled by readily available means.”

“Polymateria was founded to help tackle plastic pollution at scale. Through our latest partnership with IVL, this is exactly what we are delivering. I am glad we have found long-term partners who share our commitment to science and evidence,” Polymateria CEO Niall Dunne said.

“We are constantly innovating to live up to our responsibility to optimise the earth’s resources, as we combine nature and science in our biotransformation PP – designed to be recycled or returned to nature,” Rachim said. “By bringing Biotransformation technology to Hygiene markets, we hope to offer a real-world solution to waste management. We particularly hope to address aspects of the creation of fugitive waste and remove this from the environment without causing additional, and potentially more dangerous, problems.”